Today, most waste from stores such as fast food chains, restaurants, retail and office locations is discarded by individuals (e.g. customers or employees) into waste cans or receptacles provide onsite. These waste receptacles typically are fitted with removable plastic bags, which can be closed when filled and removed from the receptacles and then disposed of in dumpsters usually located outside the buildings and adjacent to the parking lot of theses locations to facilitate removal by a waste disposal service.
Typically, the waste is not sorted and all thrown into the same waste receptacles resulting in a mix of a variety of items, including trash, garbage, paper products and other waste items. The plastic bags filled with waste are thrown into a dumpster and mixed with other plastic bags containing waste. This waste is transported in the dumpsters or garbage trucks to land fills and typically not sorted before being buried.
Currently, there exists a need to sort waste into targeted waste to allow this particular waste to be effectively recycled. Once certain types of waste are mixed together, even subsequent sorting may not allow the waste to be recycled due to the contamination from the other waste. In particular, food and beverage containers (e.g paper cups, paper containers, plastic bottles, plastic containers) should not be mixed with other waste, if the waste beverage and food containers are going to be recycled into new products suitable for contact and use with food and beverage that meet the standards and guidelines of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Further, to ensure proper handling of the waste food and beverage containers, the custody of this waste from the point of disposal (e.g. store waste receptacle) through recycling of this waste must be established, tracked, and maintained to assure no contamination thereof. Thus, it is preferred that this type of wasted be immediately sorted and maintained separate from the general mixed waste stream throughout collection, transport, storage, and recycling thereof.
Due to the large amount of labor involved with sorting, it is desirable that the user or consumer of the food or beverage container begin the process of sorting by placing these items in marked collection bins or receptacles. For example, placing used paper cups into a marked waste receptacle for used paper cups only begins the process of effectively sorting this waste. The marked containers would contain a bag type removable liner, which when filled could be removed and disposed of.
In the case of paper cups, the paper substrate is of a high quality paperboard stock, which has been treated with a plastic, wax, or resin coating process to make the paperboard resistant to water penetration and resulting degradation. It is desirable to be able to recycle this particular type of paper stock into new food grade paperboard suitable for manufacturing paper cups or other direct contact food containers while maintaining a sanitary environment and ensuring a high degree of segregation to avoid the inclusion of any hazardous or deleterious materials.
Due to the increasing public, private and government interest in “going green” and being environmentally friendly, there exists renewed interest and demand on recycled products having greater percentages of recycled material content. Thus, this demand will require new and effective systems and methods of recycling waste into renewable products.